(Steel guitar, 1920–2005) One of country music’s most influential steel guitar players, Gerald Lester Byrd was born in Lima, Ohio. He started out on the Renfro Valley Barn Dance, where he backed singers such as Red Foley and began experimenting with various innovative tunings and playing techniques. In Nashville in the late 1940s and 1950s, he ...
1543–1623 English composer Byrd’s early life is shrouded in mystery. He may have been born in Lincoln, but his formative years must have been spent at least partly in London; at some point in his youth he studied with Tallis. In 1563 he was made organist and master of the choristers at Lincoln Cathedral. He married in 1569 and in ...
A leading figure on America’s West Coast music scene, Jerry Garcia was born in San Francisco in 1942. His father was a retired professional musician, his mother a pianist. The musically inclined Jerry began taking piano lessons as a child. The emergence of Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran inspired him to learn guitar at 15, ...
If Jerry Lee Lewis had never existed, it seems unlikely that anyone would have had a sufficiently vivid imagination to have invented him. Through a 50-year career, this massively talented, yet infuriatingly self-destructive genius has scaled the heights and plumbed the depths, never for one moment compromising his music or his life. Most people mellow with age. ...
(Vocals, guitar, songwriter, actor, b. 1937) A dazzling guitar player, Atlanta, Georgia-born Jerry Reed Hubbard started out in Nashville in the mid-1960s, playing on recording sessions with artists such as Bobby Bare and Porter Wagoner. Later, Reed backed Elvis Presley on guitar when Presley recorded a pair of Reed’s original songs in 1968 ...
The Byrds hired Gram Parsons (vocals, guitar, 1946–73) in 1968 because they needed a guitarist and pianist to fill the instrumental void left by the recent departure of David Crosby (vocals, guitar, b. 1941) and the earlier departure of Gene Clark (vocals, guitar, 1944–91). The remaining Byrds – Roger McGuinn (vocals, guitar, b. ...
(Vocals, guitar, b. 1942) Walker grew up in upstate New York State and wrote his most famous song, ‘Mr Bojangles’, as a Greenwich Village folkie, but when he moved to Austin in 1972 he embraced the town’s cowboy-hippie ethos so wholeheartedly that he became its personification. Backing his singer-songwriter material with a Texas dancehall band transformed his ...
(Vocals, b. 1966) After sharing a residency with Mark Chesnutt at The Cutters Club in Beaumont, Texas, Byrd followed his route to Nashville two years later. His eponymous 1993 album included ‘Holdin’ Heaven’, his first No. 1 hit. Nine years later, he returned to the top with ‘Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo’, one of several novelty singles. ...
(Piano, vocals, b. 1935) After signing to Sun Records in 1957, Louisiana-born rock’n’roller Lewis, noted for his percussive piano style, opened his account with two million-selling US Top 3 hits, ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On’ and ‘Great Balls Of Fire’ (both 1957), but caused major media controversy during a 1958 UK tour when it was ...
Melding folk with rock, smooth harmonies with jangling guitars, The Byrds enjoyed a short period during the mid-1960s when they were not only publicly acclaimed by their two biggest influences, Bob Dylan and The Beatles, but when they themselves also influenced those icons. Acoustic Folk Pop Jim McGuinn (born James Joseph McGuinn III, 13 July 1942), ...
(Vocals/vocal group, 1957–90) Childhood friends Mayfield and Butler joined Sam Gooden and Arthur and Richard Brooks in The Impressions in 1957, Butler going solo after one hit, ‘For Your Precious Love’. In 1967, Butler teamed his distinctive smooth soul voice with producer-writers Gamble and Huff and helped to forge the polished Philadelphia Soul sound with No. 1s ...
The electric steel guitar (also known as ‘Hawaiian guitar’ or simply ‘steel guitar’) is a solid-body, steel-strung instrument that relies on pickups and amplification to produce its sound. It has its origins in the Hawaiian music of the late-nineteenth century and is similar in sound and playing technique to resonator guitars such as the Dobro or National. Playing Technique The ...
(Comedian, 1910–58) Rodney Leon Brasfield, born in Smithville, Mississippi, was one of country music’s most beloved comedians and a long-time favourite of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, where he performed from 1944 until his death. He often teamed with fellow Opry comedienne Minnie Pearl and later with singer-comedienne June Carter Cash. Styles & Forms | War Years ...
One of the best-known Renaissance music manuscripts, the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, was compiled by the musician Francis Tregian (1574–1619) during his imprisonment in London for recusancy from 1609 until his death. The manuscript contains an unusually wide-ranging collection of nearly 300 keyboard pieces by English composers (many of them also known for their Catholic sympathies), including Tallis, Byrd ...
Once hailed by the Pope as ‘Defender of the Faith’ against Martin Luther, Henry VIII made an about-face when he declared himself primate of the Church of England in order to grant himself a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. The political, religious and social results of Henry’s action are well-known; the impact on music was ...
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An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
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Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
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